No Gym? Your Hotel Room Will Do
There is a particular kind of resistance that shows up when people talk about exercising in hotel rooms.
Not resistance to movement itself, but to the idea that it has to look a certain way to be worth doing. That it needs space, equipment, motivation, or the right conditions to count.
In reality, most hotel rooms already hold more than enough space to do something meaningful for the body. What’s missing isn’t square footage. It’s willingness to keep it simple.
I learned that the hard way in May 2020 and in the whole year after.
At the time, I was flying private, and after 2 months of break, we started flying with our principal. Some of the weirdest layovers and countless Covid tests. Going to the hotel gym was not an option. No hotel facilities, no walks through unfamiliar cities, no sense of normal routine. Sounds familiar, right? In some places, we were treated almost like aliens, with food trays left outside the room door and minimal contact with anyone at all. Everything happened within the same four walls.
To keep myself busy and sane, and to continue doing what I genuinely love - moving my body, I started bringing a few basics with me. A yoga mat, resistance bands, and TRX cables. Nothing complicated. Just enough to allow movement to happen.
Let’s be honest, some hotel rooms were tiny, but they were enough. I was able to do full, satisfying workouts in that limited space, and in all honesty, some hotel gyms I’ve seen haven’t been much bigger than the rooms themselves. What mattered wasn’t the room. It was the decision to move within it.
Movement isn’t just exercise. When you spend long hours sitting and staying alert, the body tightens up. Moving helps loosen things, get blood flowing again, and give the nervous system a break.
Exercise supports immune function, improves insulin sensitivity, and helps regulate stress hormones, but there is also something quieter happening alongside the physiology. Moving the body creates a sense of agency in environments where much feels out of your control, and that alone can make a meaningful difference.
Room corridor - now serving as a fitness area. So little space that the bathroom door stayed open, just to extend my arms. Geneva
A question that comes up often is when to exercise while travelling, whether it’s better before a flight or after. If the goal is general health and wellbeing, the most helpful time is simply the one that fits into the day without adding pressure. Moving after a flight can help release stiffness and settle the nervous system, while moving before can bring a sense of grounding and alertness. Both serve a purpose.
When training for competition or performance gains, timing, intensity, and recovery deserve more careful consideration, but for most people working irregular and demanding schedules, consistency matters far more than optimisation.
There is also a quieter truth about exercise that rarely gets acknowledged: motivation rarely shows up first. Even for people who enjoy movement, it tends to arrive once the body is already in motion.
I don’t feel particularly motivated before I exercise either. What keeps me coming back is the way it feels once I’m there, and especially once I’m done. But it also comes from something simpler and more personal, the feeling that you’ve done something constructive for yourself in can environement that doesn’t always make that easy.
Exercising in a hotel room doesn’t need to be impressive or intense. It needs to be possible. It needs to fit the reality of the space, the day, and the energy available.
Even in the smallest rooms, there is usually enough space to move, to reconnect with the body, and to create a sense of steadiness again.
And sometimes, that is all that’s needed to change how the rest of the day unfolds.
Keep on moving.
Ivana
